A formal complaint has been registered with the UCP regarding an endorsement for leadership candidate Travis Toews sent from the party’s main email address by Energy Minister Sonya Savage.. Calvin Goulet-JonesCalvin Goulet-Jones .“This is a direct abuse of power from MLA Savage utilizing the party email to influence a leadership election,” wrote Calvin Goulet-Jones, who long served as a Red Deer-South constituency association (CA) board member..“This email from the main UCP email makes it appear that the Party and those responsible to maintain the email address info@unitedconservative.ca is endorsing a candidate contravening Section 12 of the Leadership Election Rules and Procedures,” wrote Goulet-Jones in his complaint sent Friday..Goulet referred to Section 12.2 in the Neutrality and Confidentiality clause that states: Party staff and contractors are required to remain neutral throughout the Leadership Election and will not support any Applicant or Leadership Contestant or involve themselves in any Applicant or Leadership Contestant campaign in any way. .“I ask for the party to make a formal apology to all candidates and reprimand MLA Savage for such an immoral tactic.” .“I also ask that the Party reach out to the Toews campaign to ensure that they did not directly play a part in this email and if so, I ask that they be penalized under Section 5.6 of the Leadership Election Rules and Procedures.”.Goulet-Jones received an email reply from the UCP that it was a mistake..“I can appreciate that mistakes happen and when they do, they must be clarified. I am happy to know that you have resolved this for me on an individual level however the mistake has been broadcasted to over 100,000 members and now must be rectified. Members need communication from either the party or from MLA Savage acknowledging and correcting the mistake,” he said in follow-up email to the UCP. .UCP spokesman Dave Prisco told the Western Standard no rules were violated..“This was just a simple mistake. The party sends emails on behalf of every leadership campaign. It is a requirement in the leadership rule to protect membership data,” wrote Prisco in an email..“When this email was sent, the wrong button was clicked by our team.”.Prisco then pointed to Section 11.3 that states: The Executive Director or his designate will make reasonable efforts, at his absolute discretion, to facilitate email correspondence to all or part of the preliminary membership list and authorized membership list, as applicable, on behalf of Leadership Contestants.. “What used to happen in old times is the party would send each leadership campaign a list. They’d get access to the membership list with emails. This time, what occurred was the leadership election committee decided they’re not going to give the email addresses to the campaigns. So, the party will send out emails on behalf of all of the campaigns. Every email that every member receives comes from the party,” he said in a follow-up telephone interview..“The mistake was the from line. We would have preferred it would have come from someone else’s email because the responses don’t go to her inbox.”.“In the list of senders, they clicked Sonya Savage the party one instead of Sonya Savage the Toews one. But that’s not a breaking of the rules, even that itself.”.“That didn’t give them (the other six candidates) a disadvantage.”.Goulet-Jones disagrees..“It shows a bias towards one candidate. Whether it was a mistake or not, the party having that email out there, is ultimately controlled by the board. And the board is not allowed any bias whatsoever. So, this violates their rules. And it is a clear disadvantage (to other candidates) when the party is sending an email from their line endorsing a candidate.”.“And especially a candidate that is in the position such as Travis where it is on the line of every vote counts. You can see the desperation that he has right now in his contacts and emails, in his constant phone call barrage that he has going on right now. This just fits right into his campaign style.”.Social media is flooded with complaints by members who are fed up with calls they’re being inundated with..Danielle Smith is the current frontrunner in the race, its results to be announced October 6..Toews and Brian Jean have been jockeying for second place, according to the polls..Goulet-Jones served Red Deer-South as a CA board member for a decade “first on the Wildrose side, then on UCP the side.”.“I resigned the board in 2021 because of the direction the party was going and the fact that no one was taking a stand on anything.”.“I’ve really taken a step back because you see the corruption in politics and it’s gets depressing when it never, ever changes.”.“It’s always a mistake.”.Candidate Todd Loewen said “yes and no” when asked if the Savage email was a concern..“It may be somewhat a nuance. We’re getting all the emails sent anyway. It’s just a matter of where it comes from and where the information comes back to. So, I think that’s maybe more the issue,” said Loewen..“I guess what it does do is allow the party to know who’s supporting Travis and who isn’t, which probably shouldn’t be their business. I’m not sure if things like that are done inadvertently or on purpose. I’m not sure why they would want, or why they would need, or why they would have a desire to have that information.”.In her email, Savage endorsed Toews as a “stable, proven leader who can strengthen Alberta, unite Alberta, and win the next election.”.“He’s the leader Alberta needs — so I’ll be ranking Travis #1 on my UCP leadership ballot.”.Savage could not be reached for comment
